Thursday, December 8, 2011

Advent: Week 1 - Prophecy Day 6

If you have an advent wreath, light one candle while your do your
Bible reading (we read it in the morning without the candle and then
light the candle when we read it again at night with daddy.)

Bible Reading - Isaiah 53

Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Activity - Coloring the Cross & Copywork

I had Trevor color the cross on the page below while I read the passage today. This is a long section to read, so I knew that it would be good to have him do something while I read. I specifically instructed him to try to color nicely in the lines and to fill up the whole cross (those of you with girls who love to color don't have to instruct on these kinds of things, but those of you with boys whose inclination is to scribble for 5 seconds and be done will know what I'm talking about =) I think it worked our well because all throughout the reading he would ask what different words meant (like sorrow, despised, crushed, etc.) so I knew that he was listening.

This passage is essentially about Jesus bearing our sins. In our home we talk a lot about how Jesus died and rose from the grave, so this lended itself nicely to a deeper discussion about that (as deep as a 3yo can go =) This really is a fabulous passage of scripture! Take the time to read it through with your children and let them ask questions. "Mom, what does it mean that he was not beautiful?" "What does it mean that he carried our sorrows?" "What do you mean that we are like sheep?"

Next, I had Trevor read the sentence at the bottom of the page, "Jesus was born to die." Obviously this is a very simplistic take on Jesus' life, but I wanted to tie in the 'why' of all this advent hoopla. If Jesus would have been born, but never died (and rose again), then we would have nothing to celebrate! Make sure that you touch on that at some point this Christmas season. I was impressed with how well Trevor read the sentence. He needed coaching, but his confidence in trying to sound out longer words is growing and his ability to read some words without sounding out each phonogram is increasing as well. Then he copied the sentence. He gets a few letter backwards sometimes, but in general he is doing well with this too. I miss our usual copywork and am excited to get back to it after Christmas!

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